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Born in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland, he immigrated to Canada with his family when he was five years old. At 17, he began playing at coffeehouses in Toronto's Yorkville area and later attended Central Tech as an art student before deciding to become a full-time musician. He is best known in Canada for his Canadian smash hits "Farmer's Song" and "Down by the Henry Moore", which was about a sculpture in front of Toronto's city hall, where students met in the '60s and early 1970s. McLauchlan has had success in the pop, adult contemporary, country, and folk-music fields, with such songs as "Child's Song," the Juno Award-winning "Farmer's Song" (1973), "Hurricane of Change" (also 1973), "Do You Dream of Being Somebody" (1975), and "Whispering Rain" (1979).

In 1987, McLauchlan appeared on the children's television show, Sharon, Lois & Bram's Elephant Show singing his Juno-Award-Winning Farmer's Song. He appeared in Season 4 of The Elephant Show on the "Urban Cowboy" episode.

McLauchlan hosted the highly rated CBC Radio program Swinging On a Star from 1989 to 1994.[1]

McLauchlan has held a commercial pilot license (CPL) with Instrument flight rating (IFR) and endorsements for multi-engine aircraft and seaplanes for decades. During a performance in the 1980s, McLauchlan commented to audiences, half-jokingly, of "giving this music thing a little more time" [2] before giving it up and returning to flying for a living.

In the late 1990s, McLauchlan was flying commercial airplanes as a "bush pilot" in Northern Canada. In 1986 he starred in a television special called Floating over Canada, in which he piloted a Cessna 185 float plane across Canada.[1] This special was broadcast on U.S. public television on PBS, as well as in Canada on CBC.

In 2004 McLauchlan helped form a group known as "Lunch At Allen's" featuring McLauchlan, Marc Jordan, Cindy Church and Ian Thomas. Formed as a result of meeting in Toronto for lunch at Allen's restaurant after McLauchlan's heart bypass surgery. Three CDs have been released as a result of this collaboration: Lunch at Allens (2004), Catch the Moon (2007) and More Lunch at Allens (2010).